The Cancellation of ChuckleVision
The Cancellation of ChuckleVision occurred in December 2009, after the broadcast of the 21st series. However, it has been a long and complicated affair, something which will be outlined below. Cancellation & initial aftermath ChuckleVision ''was surreptitiously cancelled by the BBC in the winter of 2009. However, they kept the decision quiet, not even the Chuckle Brothers themselves were aware that their TV series had been permanently taken out of production. Rumours surrounding the show's cancellation - 2010-2013 * After the 21st series had aired on CBBC in December 2009, no indication was given as to when the 22nd series would be aired. The announcement of a commission was not given or expected by fans or the Chuckle Brothers themselves, as they had already been assured by Lorraine Heggessey, the head of Children's BBC in the 1990s, that the BBC would continue to produce the show until they chose to end it or retire themselves. * When the Chuckle Brothers appeared on Celebrity Coach Trip in November 2010, they confirmed to one of the other participants, who enquired as to whether they missed making ''ChuckleVision, that they were, on the contrary, still recording it and that it had been on the air 23 years by that point. * Wikipedia's entry on ChuckleVision continued to confirm into 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, that Series 22 has undergone production and would air sometime within the corresponding years, however, these claims were never substantiated and the series never returned. * * * * The Chuckle Brothers' now-defunct website confirmed in 2012, that ChuckleVision had not, in fact, ended as many fans assumed, but the delay to Series 22 had been caused by the BBC's move of the Children's Department to Salford, Manchester and once everything had been settled down, production would begin on the new series. But once again, this was false hope and no series ever materialised. * The first confirmation of an outright cancellation came in 2013, when former Executive Producer of ChuckleVision Joe Godfrey confirmed that in his position as Director of BBC Children's, the department had no current plans to show or make any further episodes of the show. The Definitive Story Behind the Cancellation - 2019 When Paul was being recently interviewed for Hayden Parker's Panto Podcast he confirmed that the pair were never informed about the BBC's choice to stop commissioning new series of ChuckleVision. Despite the assurance that they had a 'lifetime contract' with the BBC, as the then Head of Children's BBC Lorraine Heggessey, confirmed to them in the 1990s, by the time the 21st series had wrapped production, crew members were expressing their love for working on the show and how much they were going to miss doing so, with it being the last series; something which Paul and Barry were oblivious to. However, in 2010, when production time came for the 22nd series, the new Heads at CBBC were ambivalent about producing another series, convinced that showing the repeats rather than making new episodes was more justifiable as they received the same number of viewing figures as the new episodes. Similarly, the new Head of Children's Damien Kavanagh, refused to make a new series, despite their protestations, claiming that with 292 in the archive, enough had been made. However, repeats ceased completely after a couple of years, which the BBC cited to a struggle to find actors who had appeared in the episodes to pay them royalties, however, Paul disputed this, suggesting Equity would be able to sort that out efficiently. Paul suggests that the popularity of ChuckleVision wasn't declining and that the show was as popular as it ever had been on CBBC before its unjustified cancellation. Full Transcript Hayden Parker: How was it, then, taking the cancellation from the BBC? Paul Chuckle: It wasn’t good because they never told us. They never said a word. They just took it off. So Lorraine Heggessey, she was the head of Children’s in the nineties. She took us to The Ivy in London and we chatted. And then she said, ‘Well, as for'' ChuckleVision'',’’ she said, ‘’as far as I’m concerned, you can keep doing them year after year after year until you’ve had enough. And the BBC will keep it going until you don’t want to do it anymore.’’ So we thought, ‘’Oh, thank you, that’s lovely.’’ We didn’t have to worry about what we’re doing next autumn and next autumn we filmed the next series of ChuckleVision. And I think we’d done about seven series by then, so she was right what she was saying because after that we did about another fifteen series or whatever. So, when it came to the end we’d done Series 22, I think it was, and at the wrap party somebody came up to us and said, ‘’It was an honour to do ChuckleVision, especially as it was the last series, it was great to be on it.’’ And we said, ‘’What are you talking about the last series? It’s not.’’ ‘’Isn’t it? Oh, I must have got it wrong.’’ We said, ‘’No, it’s not the last series, no. As far as we know anyway, no one’s told us.’’ So, anyway, we took it with a pinch of salt and came the following year and we said, ‘’Where’s ChuckleVision? You’ve not come in with the scripts and stuff.’’ ‘’Oh, erm, we’re not sure,’’ she said, ‘’we’re not sure whether to do another one yet.’’ ‘’What are you talking about? It’s still as popular as ever.’’ She said, ‘’Yeah, but we put the repeats on and it gets as many viewers for the repeats as it gets for a new one, so it’s cheaper to just put the repeats on.’’ ‘’Yeah, but you can only do that so long and said as you said, it’s still getting the same viewing figures and because the repeats are getting just as good viewing figures it’s still as popular.’’ But they wouldn’t have it. There was a new guy who was Head of Children’s Kavanagh and he just wouldn’t have it. He said, ‘’No, we’ve got enough in the can.’’ Which I suppose, 292 episodes in the can was fine, but they only went for another year after that and they stopped the repeats and their excuse for that was they couldn’t find everybody from the years back to pay them their royalties. Which is a load of rubbish because Equity will find them, find the act and pay them. So, just total excuses all the time and to this day they’ve not said why they took ''ChuckleVision off. It was so popular and they took it off. HP: But we’re not happy as viewers. But as you say, we’ve got YouTube now, but it would have been nice to have some more. PC: Yes, it would, yes. Because we enjoyed doing it and we had the same crew for the past fifteen years that pencilled in every year to do that. And we had the same crew for years, everybody: make-up, wardrobe. It was like a family. We had so much fun. Which you could tell with the outtakes and stuff. It was so much fun doing it.